muscadelle

This is the third grape of the famous Sauternes trio along with semillon and sauvignon blanc. But now its star is waning and the majority of its production is no longer august sweet wines but from the vast tracts of the Entre-deux-mers. It is unrelated to the large muscat family although it shares a grapey character and also originates in Bordeaux. It is not an overly distinguished grape and its principle role is in adding a youthful fruitiness to blends.

However, it does shine in one rather obscure corner of the wine world. It makes an exceptional single varietal Liqueur Tokay from Australia, although this no longer has the following it enjoyed in the last half of the twentieth century.

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